the little. blue. loafer. syria pledges to retaliate while its close ally iran warns of dire consequences after israel launches a bombing raid on a target near damascus also. i took a strong stance and a very public one and that's what got me into trouble. expose america's torture program and got thirty months behind bars for doing so a decorated cia veteran who turned against the agency tells r.t.

of his predicament. unique footage surfaces often urged atrocities committed by troops in towns freshly retaken from islamists reports on civilian casualties remain hard to obtain french plans premature handover to local troops. and british prime minister david cameron defies warnings of an imminent threat to you came and travels to libya he pledged to help train the country's stretched security forces. coursing live from moscow twenty four hours a day he says r t i'm kerry johnston. now syria has threatened to take action against israel he's a fighter jets allegedly violated syria's space and bombed

a military research complex close to damascus meanwhile the first video footage apparently showing israeli planes bombing the facility has appeared on the internet it was uploaded to the web by activists who are known to be from a district close to the target and shows bright flashes in the night sky bangs were heard at the site shortly after midnight on wednesday. has the details from tel aviv. now we are hearing from syria that israel did launch a military strike inside their country israel has not commented neither confirming nor denying these reports the syrian ambassador to lebanon did say that it was not clear when ever tell you would happen and that it was up to the powers that be to decide on such decisive action but he did say that it was an option and that it was and would be a surprise now the iranian foreign minister has also stated that this israeli attack has serious implications for the israeli city of tel aviv and those are

indeed quite harsh warnings what we understand from syria from syrian sources is that the israelis hit a research center not far from the capital city of damascus and that at least two unsigned workers were killed there are also reports that the strike hit a convoy of weapons that was making its way from syria to lebanon and now washington reportedly was warned by israel obvious intention to strike inside syria this kind of comment coming from a high ranking american official who has spoken on condition that he not be named it is important to mention that a couple of months ago iran's revolutionary guard did say that assad had friends in the region who had not yet entered the fray the quote was that these planes were poised to strike out in case there was an intervention in syria earlier this month is well deployed if i am going to face in the soft system to its border with syria

and that this of a growing concern that they could be some kind of use of chemical weapons as i mentioned earlier we have no comment yet from tel aviv there also has been no comment from washington moscow has said if indeed these reports are accurate that these raids did strike inside syrian territory it is a gross violation of the united nations charter the arab league for its side has slammed is role for these alleged strikes saying that they are a flagrant act of aggression and a glaring violation of syria's sovereignty. for live updates on the reported israeli bombing as well as opinions from inside the middle east you can check out the paula's twitter feed one of her latest tweets she cites the israeli press which says a syrian rebel group has actually claimed responsibility for the attack on a military research center near damascus. well earlier r.t. spoke to sayd mohammad marandi an iranian academic and political analyst he says that israel should be concerned about iran's possible lots of air strike in syria

and iran and say the israelis are going to face serious consequences the iranians have many means to her israelis to punish the israelis it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be involved directly they could. support. countries or bodies that could could make life for israelis more difficult of course iran will defend syrian sovereignty and i think that the americans and israelis should take this seriously because the iranians through soft power and other means have made life very difficult for american americans and their allies in the region over the past decade as we saw in iraq and afghanistan and in lebanon. while israel has taken a step closer to confrontation its border with syria it continues to receive harsh criticism over its settlement activity. pressure when it says it's violating human

rights human rights council says israel must prove all of its own for millions of lives from the occupied territories east jerusalem and west bank details just ahead . a decorated cia veteran turned torture whistleblower and agency outcast is now awaiting a summons to start a prison sentence john kiriakou was one of the first to confirm the existence of washington's controversial waterboarding program and has been sent to jail for two and a half years for revealing the name of an undercover agent also we do our t. he himself said his true crime was speaking out against the government. first of all my case was not about leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until

they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to

assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development. now live in heated session in the u.s. senate has voted to vamose the secretary of defense nominee and makes an apparent u. turn saying that possible military action against iran is on the table but still ahead . marty is going exclusive footage of what's believe to be atrocities committed by the mahdi an army and a town liberated from his n'est rebels with the help of french forces and information on civilian casualties in mali has been known to be scarce spoke to local journalist gonzalo one who told us all the origins of a disturbing tape as we continue moving north we find reports of extrajudicial

killings and evidence of crimes we have heard of the murder of a few citizens by mali and soldiers in the town of survivor not only did they kill them they shoved their bodies into the drinking water well located in the center of the town making the rest of the population watch rules are hearing of cases where people are being prosecuted for trying to earn a living under the rule of militants sixteen year old adama says he was unknowingly employed as a cook and butler by jihadists is now being accused of terrorism. after i started working as a cook in the town of do when i went to surveyor there i met an old man and i asked him for a drink of water he said that he won't share water with terrorists i said that i was in a terrorist and i was just thirsty then i was put into prison i am no terrorist i didn't even know that i was working with militants i only realized that through the rumors i started hearing and then when everyone went on to the frontline i was just

cooking include for them no one even talked to me i think persecution is also reportedly becoming widespread in the area arabs and said to be persecuted on charges of allegedly collaborating with the militants you know the government and the french troops are fighting against our contacts in timbuktu also told us that shops belonging to arabs are being looted. well the french after retaking the final major city kadar from isn't it say they'll soon leave mali handing operations over to government troops but if the newest international consultant and former deputy speaker the belgian parliament says it's the bad idea considering the lack of discipline and funding in the west african nation. what i hear now is how this surprises me i mean first of all the mali an army does hold a grudge against the people who are stemmed from the northern part of the country and secondly the soldiers very low grade and at very little armaments and they're

not really a regular army in that sense there's only. hardly a state apparatus functioning how can you rejected people and examine what they do you can't you just ground nick underlying that so the only thing you can do correctly is if you think people might be terrorist is hold them and arrest them and detain them what you should not do is this is kind of actually judicial executions but it hardly surprises me that this is going on right now this country needs support yes this country needs are well why is it that this help only comes in the form of military invasions that's a basic question usually we should ask ourselves. and there are also fears of sectarian revenge attacks in mali following the french led military campaign more on this as well as images from the continent own country on r.t. dot com. well throwing his own the government's warnings to the wind british prime minister david cameron has touched down in tripoli for

a surprise visit he promised to stand by libya as it rebuilds and has his own foreign office one britain's of a growing threat to its embassies there ati's under farmer has more on what the pm hopes to achieve. did arrive initially made very tight security and then he stressed that he wanted britain to try and beef up security in libya and try and help it improve its own economy there's no doubting that things have deteriorated in this country since twenty eleven when mr cameron last made his visit here just after the overthrow of colonel gadhafi new libyan government is struggling with a lack of resources it's also struggling to its authority over militias and on top of this recently the british government admitted that there was a threat to its own embassy in tripoli and that it had advised british nationals to leave benghazi because of security concerns so mr cameron is well aware that there are problems and no doubt he will be talking about these when he meets with the libyan prime minister and the president during the rest of his visit but there was

one telling moment today because apart from all this he did make a fifteen minute walk about around martyrs square which was the center of the revolution and he did come in from algeria today in his visit to our g. area of a similar purpose really he was trying to show that britain has support for this country and he also made reference to algeria today and also talked about the terrorist attack at the gas plant there which saw which saw thirty seven foreigners killed he mentioned that that was a reminder that what happens in other countries affects us at home too so i suppose putting it simply he's trying to show that britain still cares about these two countries mr cameron does have his critics though there are those that claim that really what he's trying to do is protect britain's own interests after all libya and syria are among the top five producing all countries in africa. earlier my colleague spoke to ben quiney chair of conservative think tank the bow group insists that david cameron's visit to the bureau is a move to support democracy in the country. i think the reason for his visit there

is is to show the support the britain and the u.k. government wants to give northern african countries that wish to tradition to democracy although not necessarily in military terms there are other ways we can give support libya algeria in the top five of africa's oil producers together pumping out eighty five percent of the continent's black gold do you maintain that britain's interest in them has nothing to do with that i mean we are rich in this facing some economic tough times right now so are we moving back to north africa for that no certainly not british petroleum and other oil companies had interests in libya before. the colonel gadhafi but now that they own genes that hasn't changed is it easier for your government to go back and say well we've helped in the region changes so now we can come in and start talking about how we can work together again because that's how we looks like from no actually the elsa sitting.

well while i don't think it does look like that because actually it's more difficult it's more difficult to do business in libya after the revolt but. i think the important point is that whilst tony blair felt that he could deal with colonel gadhafi david cameron didn't feel that the united kingdom could acceptably go on dealing with a sponsor of terrorism terrorism very ambiguous term these days isn't it some syrian rebels are terrorists yet the west backs their cause where do we draw the line well al-qaeda is clearly a terrorist organization that is and the rebels think it's a limited number made those comments he was he was referring specifically to. or made those comments in light of what happened in algeria and that makes the point very clearly that british lives were lost in algeria. so there's not only threats to lives abroad but there's also threats of lives at home because where al-qaeda

training centers have been subdued in afghanistan they've now moved to northern africa. well the more news here on our short break stay with us. it's technology innovation. developments around russia we. covered. a story and it seems. you think you understand it and then something else some other part of it and realized everything. is a big. news

today. these are the images the world seeing from the streets of canada. welcome back more world news for you now president obama's nominee for the country's next defense secretary has gone out of his way to persuade the senate he's fully committed to preventing iran from getting nuclear weapons at the confirmation hearing chuck hagel positions on the majority of issues with the white house's course. and has been listening to the session which turned into

a deflection rather than defense. chuck hagel tried so hard to get the job you could see from the line of questioning that he was subjected to that the congress would never confirm him for the job unless he swore to defend all of washington's as one of the senators put it core foreign policy beliefs and chuck hagel went to great lengths to show that he is in no way going to challenge those core foreign policy beliefs it was quite an exhausting hearing considering the senators were asking almost the same questions and roughly eighty percent of them had to do with chuck hagel previous statements on as well and iran there was so much mentioning of israel that at some point you thought they were confirming him as defense secretary for is world and here is an example of how chuck hagel had to walk back on some of his previous statements at one time he said and this has become a famous quote the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i've always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of israel and of quote and here chuck

hagel during the confirmation hearing noted that i. did i should have used another term and i'm sorry and i regret i didn't do your use of intimidation. i should have used influence. i think would have been more appropriate i should not have said dumb or stupid. because i understand appreciate there are different views in these things to those who believed mr haider was in favor of direct negotiations with iran as he claimed he was he offered a correction a very vague one and he blurted as much as he could take a listen i don't have a problem with engaging i think great powers engage as an engagement is clearly in our interest that's not negotiation engagement is not appeasement engagements not sure under one of the senators pointed out during the hearing that in

a private conversation senator hagel told him that he thought sanctions didn't work and previously talking. against sanctions but today's talk a girl says when he was against sections those were different times because we've got a different situation unilateral sanctions because we've already got strong international sanctions should be considered you know i think the president's right to consider those and i would support that and of course he had to repeat several times that all options are on the table including a strike on iran an option that he previously called irresponsible he of course went on to japan defend the administration's pivot to asia and all other policies and that's not much of a surprise because a defense secretary supposed to carry out the president's policies that's his job but to those who thought that chuck hagel was going to offer a new outlook on u.s. foreign policy that definitely didn't happen during this hearing and the main accusation brought up again chuck hagel was that quote he is out of the mainstream

yet senators used the word mainstream a number of times during the hearing and chuck hagel had to bend backwards to show that mainstream is where he belongs. for more analysis on this when joined live by calling her in the contributing editor from foreign policy in focus thanks for joining us here on our well as we've heard said the military option against iran is still the table did he bend to pressure do you think to gain more support for himself. well i think he would have said whatever was necessary to get himself appointed i'm not surprised by any of his statements and i think keep in mind that a cabinet post has all the independence of the piano key so he's going to follow out the administration's policies which doesn't say that appointing him secretary of defense and john kerry secretary of state doesn't mean that there is not going to be a change in foreign policy by the obama administration because they do believe that

that's true as in the winter because they can also said he won't be defined by any of his past quotes so well kind of image always left with him then and does he stand by what he says own laws. well i think it's a question of whether he stands by what he says or not is it is really you know politicians say things all the time i don't think anybody is i don't think he is that he did injure of not being. in the appointment and as far as you know scaling back on his previous comments i don't think anybody anywhere is surprised that he did so i think the key thing is is do these two appointments three kind of signal that there's going to be a bit of a change of course by the obama administration then i think they do or at least i'm hopeful that they do well heiko has been previously criticize hasn't he for being anti israel but but this time he outlined an unshakable commitment he said to

america's alliance with israel that a change of stance at all i don't think so i i think that the the anti israel stuff was pretty much pumped up by the neo conservatives and he's never shown any particular hostile he's always voted for every single weapons system or aid or everything i'm going to israel i do think there is a section of the administration that's thinks that the israelis are shooting themselves or for that don't support what's going on with the settlements and they have no love for the netanyahu have been strained should keep in mind they're letting you know ministration did everything it could to make sure that barack obama didn't win the presidency in the last election how many todd table as a pacifist i suppose. there's a need for a strong american military presence in the well what do you make of that well i

think what you're going to see and i think this is what both john kerry and and. their. appointments reflect is that the obama administration was. to get out of there out of iraq they're going to step back from direct military involvement i don't think they're going to get directly involved in syria and i do think. all five good possibility of an attack. against iran at least takes it off the table in the short run. i think that that is the case i think there's no support for for an adventure by the american people i don't think we can afford it and i think they're actually both of those appointments represent what happens in the long run you know you have to for crystal ball for the. thank you call her in and thanks for that contracting editor from foreign policy in focus thank you. the u.n.

human rights council has released a report saying israel must move all settlers out of palestinian territories the paper says the settlements are a violation of human rights destroying palestinians property and crops and driving them off their land but israel has refused to cooperate with the investigation calling the report biased and counterproductive to peace efforts and the rights activist and blogger growing my own says vivid is eroding its own credibility israel has been complaining for many years that it's being singled out by various un organs. the human rights council one of the things it was formed to do was to have a more equitable process which had the same level of scrutiny for all you and members and although this report what did single out israel it's boycott of the human rights council is comprehensive it refuse to participate in review process

which every other un member attends anybody israel attended four years ago and that undermines not only israel's international position but the whole human rights process in general. what are some more world news in brief for you now in france tens of thousands of public sector workers took to the streets strike demanding pay rises it's three years a long long sorry these almost a million civil servants struggling at minimum wages and in greece workers have gone on a two day strike with hundreds on the streets protesting against austerity measures that will make deep cuts to pay doctors port workers and public transport stuff that took part of a number of different demonstrations across the greek capital. egypt. have renounced widespread violence protests across the country agreement came at a meeting attended by leaders of the muslim brotherhood and the heads of liberal

and secular opposition movements it was called as a present mercy cut short his trip to germany over the ongoing unrest at home without securing any backing from. well after the break we take a look at her day in the life of those suffering from brittle bone disease stay with us here not. you know i can kind of sort of understand the mindset of an evil dictator i have trouble understanding what is going on or maybe not going on in the minds of the terrified cogs who believe all the propaganda give up all their rights for the lucian of safety to coach jerry seinfeld who are these people well maybe some of them maybe working at your local school bring their bureaucracies i was at

a pennsylvania school suspended a kindergartner note kindergartner as a terrorist threat because she threatened to shoot another student with a gun that shoots soap bubbles i guess this was all a mix up because the girl she wanted to shoot didn't understand that it was in rough. words to bubbles are not bullets children in kindergarten can often misunderstand things but the administration of the school seems to be no smarter than six year olds immediately going into total panic mode guess what this is hardly the first time that something like this has happened remember the kid who pointed a piece of chicken at a teacher and said bang the thing is that the real terrorism of the event is that the mental sleeves of fear propaganda that work at these schools are raising a generation of children to be just like their own somebody shoot me with a bubble gun just my opinion.

and was born doctors told us. they also said lisa would be a difficult child to handle she was bedridden. and she had to eat and sleep on a cushion because she would cry when we touched. yes i probably fell from the chair and i had from the sofa and that didn't hurt at all but then i felt the arm chair and i broke my leg. i cried for a while. and then at those sleep.